


There's No Place I'd Rather Be

by sevtacular



Category: Holby City
Genre: F/F, Family Fluff, Penguins, Zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21899251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevtacular/pseuds/sevtacular
Summary: Guinevere's very excited about going on a trip to the zoo.
Relationships: Greta Haynes/Jason Haynes, Serena Campbell/Bernie Wolfe
Comments: 22
Kudos: 65
Collections: Berena Secret Santa 2019





	There's No Place I'd Rather Be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tebarambles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tebarambles/gifts).



> Welcome to my Christmas fic... (yes, I have taken the title from Elton John's fabulous Christmas song. The reasons will become obvious). This fic is gifted to @tebarambles who is an amazing author and gave the prompt "an unexpected outing" - hopefully this lives up to your expectations. Merry Christmas one and all!

Guinevere loves birds. She’s only eight but she can already identify more than six species of garden bird using the birdwatching guide she carries round in her penguin-shaped backpack. Guinevere loves birds more than anything else in the whole wide world. She has a hat shaped like a robin and a dress covered in flamingos. She even has a very special cuddly parrot in all the colours of the rainbow which her Great Auntie Serena knitted for her. Polly The Parrot goes absolutely everywhere with Guinevere.

Today, Polly The Parrot is accompanying her on a very special day out to the zoo. Guinevere’s never been to the zoo before but her Mummy and Daddy now say she’s big enough to not get too tired within the first couple of hours. They’re still taking her buggy for if she does get a bit sleepy, though. Great Auntie Serena is also coming on the outing so it is going to be very special. Guinevere’s already very excited. The zoo has lots of birds which don’t visit gardens. She’s going to see actual penguins and flamingos and parrots like she’s seen on the TV shows her Daddy puts on with the old man with a calming voice. As she’s clicked into her car seat, Guinevere snuggles Polly The Parrot close to her face. Today’s going to be the best day ever.

-

When they arrive at the zoo, the first thing they see are the lions. The lions are being lazy and lying around on their wooden platform. Only one prowls around the enclosure, the breeze ruffling his big mane. Guinevere sits on her Daddy’s shoulders and clutches Polly The Parrot to her chest as she looks at them. Guinevere likes lions but they’re not her favourite animal.

They wander on from the lions, Guinevere swinging between her Mummy and Daddy who are holding both of her hands. Great Auntie Serena is walking alongside them, pushing the buggy in case Guinevere needs it. They see red pandas and some giant tortoises and elephants, which are bigger than Guinevere thought they’d be (even the baby ones) despite having watched plenty of documentaries with elephants in.

Next, they approach a large pool and crowded around the pool are hundreds of tall pink birds. Guinevere squeals.

“FLAMINGOS! FLAMINGOS DADDY! FLAMINGOS MUMMY! LOOK GREAT AUNTIE SERENA, FLAMINGOS!”

Guinevere rushes to reach the side of the enclosure, tugging on the hands she is holding, desperate to see real, actual flamingos.

When she reaches the side of the enclosure, she gapes open-mouthed at them all, trying to count exactly how many there are as they flap and squawk and eat. Her Mummy takes a photo of her stood by all the flamingos, Polly The Parrot her ever-present sidekick. Guinevere wants to stay and look at the flamingos all day but her Daddy tells her there’s still lots to see and so she’s scooped up by Great Auntie Serena, who carries her along to see the next creatures. All the way, Guinevere cranes her neck backwards to glimpse her precious pink birds for as long as she possibly can.

They don’t spend very long in the monkey house. They’re loud and boisterous and everyone is crowded at the glass trying to watch the spider monkeys spin on their ropes. Guinevere doesn’t especially like monkeys. Guinevere likes birds. She wants to go back and see the flamingos again.

Instead of going back to the flamingos, they go and see the otters. Otters are nice. The babies squeal and splash in the pond whilst the parents dash about after them, their brown coats sleek with water from where they’ve been swimming. Mummy likes otters and Guinevere understands why. She still prefers birds though.

After the otters are the penguins. Guinevere thinks she may be even more excited about the penguins than she was about the flamingos. Guinevere loves penguins. She peers into the glass to see them swimming under the water, zooming around and snatching the fish tossed in from somewhere above the surface. After she’s finished watching them swim, they head up to the viewing platform where they can see the penguins above their pool. It must be feeding time because a woman is stood tossing fish at them all from a bucket. Guinevere giggles and taps Great Auntie Serena, who is holding her up high enough to see over the glass barrier.

“Look! That lady has lion hair.” Guinevere giggles and growls as her Great Auntie Serena smiles and stares at the zookeeper.

“Mmm, yes Guinny, she does, doesn’t she?”

Guinevere wants to spend forever watching the penguins. She leans as far over the barrier as she can, looking at all of the black and white birds. Polly The Parrot looks too, until Guinevere leans a little too far and Polly The Parrot slips from her tiny grasp and tumbles down into the penguin enclosure. Startled, a couple of the birds start flapping and pecking at the intruder and Guinevere shrieks, her heart broken at seeing her trusty rainbow companion be attacked by some of her favourite birds.

“POLLY!!!” Guinevere wails, her little hands reaching forward to try and grab her cuddly friend. Great Auntie Serena shushes her, rocking her slightly. Mummy and Daddy look a little panicked. Luckily for all of them, the lion lady appears, striding across the enclosure and scooping Polly The Parrot out from the penguins, who get some extra fish for handing her over so freely.

“Is this beautiful bird yours?” The lady asks, offering the somewhat dirty Polly The Parrot back. Guinevere nods shyly and goes to chew on Polly’s wing when Mummy stops her, reminding her that Polly is going to need a wash when they get home. Lion lady leans on the enclosure and makes eye contact with her.

“And what’s your name, then?”

Guinevere looks at her warily. She’s always been told not to talk to strangers but this lion lady has rescued Polly The Parrot.

“I’m Guinevere. This is Polly The Parrot. Great Auntie Serena made her for me.” Guinevere offers. The woman nods and looks at Great Auntie Serena.

“You must be very good with your hands,” she says. Great Auntie Serena coughs a bit and Guinevere, warming to her new friend, agrees.

“She is. Great Auntie Serena is the bestest with her hands. She made me Polly The Parrot and she’s also made me lots of other things.” Guinevere pauses. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Bernie.” Lion lady says, pointing to the badge pinned to her chest. It has a little penguin on it. Guinevere likes it. Guinevere wishes she had a special penguin name badge. She thinks she might make herself one when she gets home.

“Do you look after the penguins?”

“I do. I’m a zookeeper and I specialise in birds so these guys here are all under my care, as are the exotics such as the parrots like Polly here.” Bernie taps Polly The Parrot on her grubby beak. Guinevere gasps. You can have a job where you look after birds? Guinevere wants to be Bernie when she grows up.

“What are the penguins called?” Guinevere asks. Bernie The Zookeeper smiles.

“Well that one over there with the red band on her arm is Minerva. She’s stood near Ronia and Momo. There’s also Tonks, Neville, Orla, Chandler and Michael.” Bernie The Zookeeper points at the penguins in turn. Guinevere looks at them all intently. “And finally, those two over there,” Bernie The Zookeeper points to two penguins huddled together by a little house. “They’re our loved up old married couple, Elton and John.”

Great Auntie Serena laughs at that and Bernie The Zookeeper does too. Her laugh sounds like the honk of the geese who live on the duck pond at the local park where Mummy and Daddy sometimes take Guinevere.

“Can penguins get married?” Guinevere asks seriously, her little brow furrowed in concentration. Bernie The Zookeeper smiles.

“Not like humans get married. But they’ve formed a life-bond so in the penguin world they’re as good as married. They’ve also raised chicks together. When we’ve had eggs abandoned on nests, we give them to the boys over there who do a great job of hatching and rearing the young. In fact, Neville was one of theirs.”

Guinevere pauses, rubbing Polly The Parrot under her nose while she thinks.

“Are penguins not bullied for being gay then?”

All of the grown-ups turn to look at her and she wonders if she’s said something wrong. Guinevere decides to clarify what she means.

“Daddy and Mummy told me all about what gay means and how it doesn’t matter who you love because what’s important is that you love someone properly and fully, like Mummy and Daddy love each other. But some people are mean and are nasty towards boys who like boys or girls who like girls. Or even people who like both boys and girls, like Great Auntie Serena.”

Great Auntie Serena turns bright red when Guinevere says this and Bernie The Zookeeper looks at her. Great Auntie Serena does a strange little laugh.

“Well, this trip is an unexpected outing in every sense.” Great Auntie Serena murmurs. She looks at Bernie The Zookeeper who smiles.

“And I’m very glad it is.” She turns back to Guinevere. “No, penguins are a lot more tolerant than humans. It’s good to know your Mummy and Daddy have told you that people like your aunt and myself are not to be afraid of.” She winks at Great Auntie Serena then checks her watch. “Now, I’m going to have to cut this short as I have to go and feed Phyllis, the zoo’s resident crane. I’m doing a talk at 1pm when I feed the parrots over at the tropical house, if you’re interested?”

“Oh, we’re very interested.” Great Auntie Serena says before Guinevere can say she’d love to go. She clutches Polly The Parrot to her chest and looks at her parents, wondering which animals they’ll go to see next.

-

They reach the little educational seating area where the parrot talk is going to be at 12:45. Great Auntie Serena made Guinevere eat up her lunchtime treat chips very quickly so they could definitely get there on time. Guinevere didn’t realise that Great Auntie Serena loves parrots so much. But then she did knit her Polly The Parrot in all the colours of the rainbow so Guinevere thinks it makes sense that Great Auntie Serena likes parrots.

Some more families come and sit down and then Bernie The Zookeeper arrives, holding a beautiful parrot on her arm.

“Hello everyone and thank you for coming to today’s parrot talk! This here is Dorothy and she’s a very clever girl. Parrots can imitate noises and even speak. They can also live for up to 80 years. Dorothy here is 18, so she’s very young. Aren’t you Dorothy?”

Dorothy The Parrot squawks and flaps her wings.

“She’s very hungry, so I’ll give her some nuts. Did you know that parrots have incredibly strong beaks which are capable of cracking open macadamia nuts and even coconuts? That’s why you should never put your fingers near a parrot’s beak and you need special training to handle a parrot.”

Bernie The Zookeeper continues her talk until it’s time for her to return Dorothy The Parrot to her exhibit. The other families leave the talk area and Guinevere goes to leave too. It’s only when she’s stood looking at some snakes with her Mummy and Daddy that she realises Great Auntie Serena has not followed them. She appears soon after looking very happy. Guinevere’s glad she’s enjoying their day out as much as she is.

-

Before they leave, Great Auntie Serena says she’d like to go for a coffee in the café near the entrance. Guinevere finds usually finds cafés a bit boring but she doesn’t mind today because they’ve just been to the gift shop and she’s been treated to an enormous cuddly penguin and a smaller cuddly flamingo. Polly The Parrot now has lots of friends. They enter the café and Guinevere notices that Bernie The Zookeeper is there and she already has a coffee for Great Auntie Serena. Guinevere thinks that’s very kind of her. Guinevere asks some more questions about penguins but then Mummy asks to play with her new cuddly birds and Guinevere becomes very preoccupied. She doesn’t notice how Bernie The Zookeeper is now holding Great Auntie Serena’s hand as they talk.

-

Homework assignment: Write about an interesting day you had over the summer holidays.

-

My Day Out At The Zoo by Guinevere Haynes.

In summer, Mummy and Daddy and Great Auntie Serena took me to the zoo. I saw lots of animals. I saw lots of birds. I like birds. I saw ~~flamingoes~~ flamingos and toucans and a crane called Phyllis. A kind zookeeper called Bernie did a talk about parrots. I want to be a zookeeper when I am bigger. Her parrot was called Dorothy. Dorothy was blue. Parrots have very strong beaks. My favourites were the penguins. Bernie looked after those too. Two of the penguins called Elton and John they are in a relationship. Penguins don’t get bullied like some humans do. That’s nice because I don’t want my Great Auntie Serena to be bullied. She’s now in love with Bernie. Bernie gave Great Auntie Serena her phone number at the zoo and they went to a pub together the next week. I know that because we went to visit her the day after and she was more happier than usual. Bernie’s really kind and knows a lot about birds. I like Bernie. She calls me PenGuinevere which is nice because it is my name mixed with my favourite bird. At the end of the summer holidays I had a sleepover at Great Auntie Serena’s with my knitted Polly The Parrot and the cuddly flamingo (Freddy) and penguin (Penny) I got from the zoo. Bernie was at the sleepover because she sleeps in Great Auntie Serena’s room sometimes now. I don’t sleep in Great Auntie Serena’s bed anymore because I’m a big grownup girl with my own bedroom at Great Auntie Serena’s house. It has bird posters on the walls. The sleepover was fun. We watched bird shows on TV and Bernie played at being different types of birds with me. Bernie’s even better at pretending than Great Auntie Serena is. My day out at the zoo was a very good outing and it means I now have a Great Auntie Bernie and a Great Auntie Serena so I feel very lucky. I want to go to the zoo again in the next school holidays. The end.

-

**Author's Note:**

> Have a wonderful festive season everyone - eat, drink and be merry.


End file.
